Wednesday’s S&P 500 index futures session featured plenty of fedspeak, but government shutdown headlines loomed overhead, resulting in a choppy, near-flat close.

Overnight, optimism over a potential shutdown end lifted futures to a high of 6900.50, though bulls failed to hold bids past the psychological 6900 level. Gains held into the open, but sellers, particularly in tech and AI components, drove a choppy decline to a pre-lunch low of 6852.00. 

Dip-buyers stepped in during lunch, recovering to unchanged and holding there for the afternoon. Bulls and bears jostled in the final minutes, closing almost exactly at the day’s midpoint of 6875.75, up 4.25 handles.

Thursday brings October’s CPI at 8:30 AM ET if the shutdown ends after tonight’s vote; otherwise, focus shifts to morning and evening earnings reports.

Among top index components, Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.B) led as the biggest gainer, rising $5.01 or 1.01% to close at $502.40 after a TD Cowen price target upgrade.

That outperformed the cash index’s 0.06% gain by a sweet 16 times. 

On the other hand, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) was the biggest loser amid the tech/AI weakness, dropping $18.07 or 2.88% to close at $609.01.